South African players will miss some IPL 2023 games, which is terrible news for IPL franchises. Most South African players, like Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, David Miller, and Aiden Markram, will attend their IPL teams in India on April 3, four days after the tournament starts on March 31. The teams most affected by this situation will be the Sunrisers Hyderabad, Delhi Capitals, Mumbai Indians, Gujarat Titans, Lucknow Super Giants, and Punjab Kings.
Cricket South Africa (CSA) told the BCCI that it wanted all of its best players to be available for the two ODI matches against the Netherlands that will be played at home starting in late March.
This choice by CSA could affect as many as six of the ten IPL teams. South African players are on the teams of Sunrisers Hyderabad (Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, and Marco Jansen), Delhi Capitals (Nortje and Lungi Ngidi), Mumbai Indians (Tristan Stubbs and maybe Dewald Brevis), Gujarat Titans (Miller, the defending champion), Lucknow Super Giants (Quinton de Kock), and Punjab Kings (Rabada).
In the ODI Super League series against the Netherlands, the South African team will play on March 31 in Benoni and April 2 in Johannesburg.
The BCCI told the franchises in December about the availability of foreign players that contracted South African players would be available starting on March 29, two days before the first game of the IPL.
But CSA CEO Pholetsi Moseki said the BCCI had been told why they wanted contracted South African players to participate in the Netherlands series.
The top eight teams in the ODI Super League automatically qualify for the 2023 World Cup, while the bottom five teams have to play in World Cup Qualifiers against five Associate teams.
At the moment, South Africa is ranked ninth, and it is competing with the West Indies, Sri Lanka, and Ireland for a direct spot in the World Cup. So, the Proteas’ performance in the Netherlands series became so important.
